A bill changing rules for local control of gravel, sand, and rock crushing passed a House committee and is sitting on the full House’s calendar for a third and final vote.
House Bill 288, Critical Infrastructure Materials, passed the House Natural Resources, Environment, and Agriculture Committee on Friday with a 9-3 vote.
Sponsored by Rep. Logan Wilde, R-Croydon, HB 288 limits a local government’s ability to restrict current critical infrastructure materials operations, defined in the bill as gravel, sand, and aggregate rock operations.
The bill also allows for the creation of critical infrastructure protection areas to protect such operations from residential encroachment.
HB 288 defines vested critical infrastructure materials operations as sand, gravel, or rock aggregate operations that are currently in operation in accordance with a legal nonconforming use or a permit issued by a local government prior to that government adopting prohibitions, restrictions, or other limits on the operation.
The vested rights of a critical infrastructure materials operator include the right to: use, operate, construct, reconstruct, restore, maintain, repair, alter, substitute, modernize, upgrade, and replace equipment, processes, facilities, and buildings; and the right to discontinue, suspend, terminate, deactivate, or continue and reactivate, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of the operations.
This language appears to nullify Chapter 30 of Tooele County’s Land Use Ordinance.
Adopted in December 2018, Chapter 30 was written specifically to regulate existing gravel pits and similar operations that were in operation before existing regulations were adopted, including legal non-conforming and permitted uses.
Non-conforming uses are uses that were lawful when they were established but changes in the county’s land use ordinance have made them incompatible with current allowed uses, according to county code.
Chapter 30 specifies restrictions hours, days, and times of operation; dust, noise, vibration, smoke, lights, and odor control; fencing and barriers; and requires a plan for managing water run off from the site.
Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead said he is in the process of studying the bill for potential impacts on county ordinances.
The bill does require that the a critical infrastructure material operation may only expand onto contiguous land that is properly zoned by the local government.
HB288 also allows the creation of critical infrastructure protection areas, similar to existing protection areas for agriculture, mining, and industry.
The ability for a local government to restrict expansion of a critical infrastructure operation within a protected area would be limited, but the local government legislative body must approve the creation of each protection area.
The bill specifies that the creation of a protection area is an administrative decision, making it not subject to a referendum.
“We wanted to make sure we aren’t infringing on the rights of local government,” Wilde told the House committee. “We’re not stepping on the zoning rights and permitting rights of local government with this bill.”
The mayor of Draper spoke in favor HB 288.
Three Draper residents spoke in opposition to the bill.
One of those Draper residents was Robert Macfarlane. He said he was concerned about dust and silicosis.
“We ought to look for solutions that protect our health and are economically viable,” Macfarlane said.
One speaker referred to gravel pits as “scaffolding,” that should be removed once construction is finished.
Wilde stressed the economic importance of infrastructure materials.
“Critical infrastructure material is not scaffolding,” he said. “It is the skeleton of your building. It is what keeps the building upright and that’s why we feel it is very important that we call it critical infrastructure materials. … As we look around the state we see a lot of problems that are coming. …
“There is becoming a growing conflict that is happening between residents and operations, whether it’s industry or manufacturing across our state. As a government do we step in and do we protect industry or do we protect jobs? In a lot of ways we do. And that seems to be the thing that we are doing here.”